Body Warmth is the Best Defence Against the Cold
by Emma-G
Summary: After the war, Trinity and Neo have some trouble in their relationship. It’s up to Trinity to take action, and the consequences are far better than anything she could have imagined. Chapter six up, now officially AU
1. Chapter One

Title: Body Warmth is the Best Defence Against the Cold

Author: GrinningRandomElf. That's me! *points to self*

Summary: After the war, Trinity and Neo have some trouble in their relationship. It's up to Trinity to take action, and the consequences are far better than anything she could have imagined. Fluffy, fuzzy feel-good thing.

Disclaimer: If I owned the Matrix, I would not be writing fanfic, I would be making movies and lots of money. Since I am writing fanfic, one must conclude that I do not own the Matrix. The film/character/story rights go to the Wachowski brothers, and WB. I own nothing in this fic except the plot. And Feather. Also any caffienated beverages mentioned. *Wanders off to look for coffee*

Rating: PG, for sexual references. It's an almost-tasteful fade-to-black and some smutty pillow talk, but it's definitely there.

Spoilers: Post-Reloaded. Spoilers are minor, but there.

Author's notes: Ah, romance. What we have here is a little N/T fluff. I've tried my best to keep them in character while injecting as much sugar as I deem safe into the story, and now send it out for consumption of the fans at large. Please tell me what you think.

The ship was never silent, Trinity mused quietly. Even in the dead of the 'night' when most of the crew was asleep, the mechanical sounds continued - humming, clanking, buzzing. Silence was unnatural. Silence meant that everything - including the essential life support and heating systems - had been shut down, and that could only mean one thing: sentinels.

Not that that had happened recently. Since the invasion of the machines into Zion had failed and all the attackers been destroyed, not one ship had reported any altercation with any form of machine, not even having to hide from a sweep. The analysts in Zion estimated that over ninety-five percent of the machine forces had been destroyed. This news had been some balm to the Zionites - thirty thousand had been killed fending off the invaders, which meant that nobody was unaffected. 

The rebuilding had taken months, but Trinity had missed most of it - she had been in hospital, convalescing. During the final battle, she and Neo had volunteered for the front line. Though they were standing barely inches apart, fate decreed that she was the one standing in the way of the collapsing section of roof, while he remained relatively unscathed. C'est la vie.

The mess hall of the Nebuchadnezzar II was empty at this hour. It was the middle of the 'night' - the graveyard shift when you were either on duty or in bed, sleeping. Or one other activity between consenting adults, which was of course the problem.

She sighed and curled her legs up to her chest, grunting with pain as the movement pulled at the wounds in her left thigh. She held the position for a moment longer, and the pain slowly faded to a dull ache. She could live with a dull ache. Massive injuries to left leg. May have to amputate. Don't you dare, said Neo. She had been mercifully unconscious at that point, but Link had told her. He hadn't let them take her leg. Severe damage to internal organs. She's bleeding internally. Severe concussion, possible brain damage. By rights, she should be dead. Her brains should have fallen out her ears from that knock on the head. They hadn't understood it, how her ruined body had held together the way it had, nor how she had healed up so fast. Neo, of course. He had held her together and made her heal. And now, now he wouldn't even...

"Why aren't you in bed?" She glanced up. Morpheus, looking tired. He had his father-face on tonight, not captain-face. She knew he often couldn't sleep, and wandered the ship compulsively. It was just another night-noise to get used to. She slept better feeling like he was watching over her. Or she had slept better.

"Couldn't sleep," she said listlessly by way of reply.

He nodded sagely. "Know the feeling. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not particularly." She didn't, she really didn't. He sat down opposite and looked at her through half-lidded eyes, waiting. "It's just..." She sighed, unsure how to put it.

"Having problems with Neo?" he asked softly, understandingly. She felt her face heat up and nodded.

"I feel like he doesn't love me anymore." At the look on his face she rushed on before he could interrupt. "I know he does. I know he saved my life, but it's just - he never touches me anymore. No more than he absolutely has to. He sleeps in his own room now, we don't share anymore. And even when we're alone, he's always so distant. And I don't know..." she trailed off, fighting back tears. "I don't know what to do," she finished lamely. "We never had to talk about this stuff before. We're neither of us any good at talking, and we never needed to, it always just happened." She felt herself go red, and hunched her shoulders, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. "I can't help thinking, what if he isn't attracted to me anymore? Because of these?" and she thumped her closed fist against her leg. Beneath the layer of fabric, her leg and a good section of her lower torso were badly scarred.

Morpheus nodded quietly. "It's okay, Trinity," he said reassuringly. "He still loves you. He can't not love you."

"How would you know?" she muttered, angry at herself for divulging so much information, even to Morpheus, whom she trusted beyond anyone.

"Because he was agonising to me about it not three hours ago. It's taking every ounce of self-control he has not to drag you off to his room and ravish you."

She sat up straight and stared at him. "Then why in hell doesn't he?" she asked incredulously.

"Because he's scared," replied Morpheus simply. "You really don't realise how bad you were hurt, Trin. You should have been dead, ten times over. And nobody, not the doctors, not me, not even you, know as well as he how bad it was. He was inside you, he put you back together piece by piece and held the bits until they stayed. And now -"

"He's afraid he'll break me again," she murmured, suddenly understanding. She gave a shudder of relief. She had just been being paranoid. Of course he loved her.

"Exactly." Morpheus' reply was soft.

"But he won't," she protested.   
"Doesn't stop him being scared."

She slumped again, feeling helpless.

"It's not good for either of you to be denying yourselves this way," said Morpheus calmly. "It's affecting your work. I expect the situation to be remedied, Trinity. Understand?" She looked at him. Yes, he still had his father-face on, but he was speaking with his authoritative captain-voice. She nodded.

"Yessir." A pause. "How? If he doesn't want..."

Morpheus grinned suddenly, his teeth very white in his dark face. "Oh, he wants, Trinity. Just push a little. See how fast his self-control will crumble when he wakes up with you in his bed."

For the third time in the last five minutes, Trinity blushed bright red.

"Go to bed, soldier. That's an order," said Morpheus, sounding far too satisfied with himself.

"You too, Mr Hero of the People, sir," she replied cheekily. He scowled childishly. "Go on, to bed with you. Niobe will be getting cold." If he was allowed to play father to her, she was allowed to mother him occasionally. He gave her a mocking salute and a grin before heading off in the direction of the room he shared with Niobe. Trinity shook her head before making her way in the other direction, towards Neo's cabin. No time like the present, she decided.

.


	2. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: See Ch 1.

Neo was drifting in the sort of sluggish half-sleep he had become accustomed to. He had found the he really didn't sleep well without her curled up by his side. All that vigorous exercise they used to engage in right before sleeping probably hadn't hurt, either.

He thought he could feel hands sliding up over his chest and bit his lip to hold in a groan that was half arousal, half exasperation. Man, his wet dreams were really getting out of control lately. He lifted a hand to brush away the phantom fingers, and was shocked when another hand met it in midair.

He opened his eyes to see a very familiar facing floating over his. Trinity. He wanted to say her name, to tell her that they couldn't, shouldn't do this, but before he could say anything, she kissed him hard on the mouth and slid over so that she was straddling his hips, their bodies intimately aligned, only the pants he wore separating them. She wore only a loose overshirt, and her lower body was bare. Her hands wandered over his bare chest, and somehow, without his knowledge or consent, his were doing the same to her, sliding underneath her shirt, skimming away from the scarred areas. Their tongues swirled together until he tore his head away, breaking the kiss, drawing a soft moan of protest from her.

"Trinity," he gasped, "We shouldn't be doing this."

She shifted slightly, rubbing against him, and he caught his breath. 

"Why not?" she growled throatily. He tried to remember. Why not indeed? His hands, still exploring, encountered a knot of scar tissue. She flinched. Of course, that was why.

"I don't want to hurt you," he whispered finally. She sat up straight, still astride him, and pushed his hand gently away from the scar. He thought that she had seen reason. Damn. But no, she simply hooked her fingers under the hem of her threadbare top and pulled it over her head, bending back over him. He shut his eyes, trying to think of pure, cold things, but there was a warm, living woman in his arms, and her mouth was sliding over his neck, licking and sucking at his skin.

"Hurt me? Tell you what hurts me. Every moment we're not touching. Every second you're not inside me is agony, Neo, like ice. Like death. Nothing could hurt more. Not being with you is killing me, don't you understand?" She punctuated her words by rocking her hips against him until it was all he could do not to cry out.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, and she kissed him.

"Don't ever do that again," she mumbled against his lips. He nodded gladly. He had almost forgotten how good she smelt and tasted and felt against him, and realised what a fool he'd been. "Love me," she whispered.

Only too happy to obey, he rolled them over so that she was beneath him and did his level best to make up for all the months he had wasted.


	3. Chapter Three

Disclaimer: See Ch 1.

Trinity came awake slowly, clinging to the last shreds of some beautiful dream, only to find that reality was even better. She was lying curled up in Neo's strong arms, with his breath gently fanning the back of her neck. Her time- sense told her that hours had passed since she finally fell asleep, and it had been a very good sleep. She shifted in his arms, stretching slightly, and felt him stir against her back as he mumbled something in his sleep.

Her muscles were sore, unsurprisingly, but it was a good, weary feeling, rather than the incessant injury-ache she'd had. That seemed to have stopped for the time being. She gave a sleepy grunt of satisfaction.

Their lovemaking had been frantic at first, with all the fervour of people who have been deprived for too long, lacking in finesse somewhat, but with plenty of enthusiasm. Then slower, more gently, taking time and pleasure in the feel of it - it had been at about that point when the bell had gone for the change of shift, she thought, but they had both been too far gone to pay any attention. Then at last, when both were exhausted, they simply held each other, twining as close together as they could as if to make up for all the time they had not.

Neo was awake. She could hear the slight hitch in his breathing. She turned in his arms to look at him, and crinkled her nose.

"Morning."

"I think it's more afternoon, but close enough," he replied, tightening his hold on her. She grinned and twisted around so she could kiss him, and made a small noise of satisfaction as he kissed his way along her jaw and down her neck. She lay back, enjoying the sensation until he sank his teeth into her collarbone.

"What was that for?" she yelped. He smiled up at her angelically.

"I've been wanting to do that for weeks." She gave him an odd look. "You remember that day you took Flip into the construct 'cause he wouldn't leave you alone?"

She nodded slightly. Flip was one of their new crewmembers, a Briton of about twenty-five years old. He had been three years out of the Matrix, released just before Neo, and had been very cocky and sure of himself. After looking at his new crewmembers, he had decided that he wanted Trinity, misinterpreting or simply choosing to ignore the bond she had with Neo. In all fairness to Flip, their relationship had at that point been at the strained and uncomfortable place of getting to know one another again after a major catastrophe had ripped their lives - and a good portion of Trinity's lower body - apart, but she had told him no, very firmly, more than once, before he decided it would be a fantastic idea to accost her in the mess hall in the middle of the night. After disabling him in a manner that left him groaning on the floor in agony, she had plugged herself and him into the construct the next day and proceeded to systematically beat the crap out of him. He had transferred off the ship at the next available opportunity.

"Yeah, I remember that," she said with a smile.

"Sadist," he accused her gently, and she gave him an innocent look, which is difficult to do when one is naked in the arms of one's lover after a night of mind-blowing make-up sex.

"Me? You're the one that's doing all the biting in this bed," she protested. "Which you still haven't explained, by the way."

He pouted, and she took the opportunity to nibble gently on his outthrust lower lip until he kissed her, laughing.

"Well, you were lying there, and Link was over at the controls, and I was supposed to be ready to pull you out if it looked like you were going to go too far and actually kill the bastard. So I was just standing there looking at you lying there, and god, you looked so beautiful. I thought to myself, I thought, 'Self, she looks good enough to eat. I want to eat her all up.'" He wrinkled his nose at her, and she laughed. When he was relaxed, he had a sort of offbeat, goofy sense of humour that never failed to get a laugh out of her. "You were in there for ages, so I had plenty of time to muse on exactly where I'd take the first bite out of you. I had it narrowed down to either your hip" and here he reached down and gave her sharp hipbone a squeeze "or your collarbone, because you've got such beautiful shoulders." He looked very pleased with himself.

"So, you picked collarbone?"

"No, I hadn't decided yet, but it was just too convenient. I still want to bite your hip, though." He paused and grinned at her. "Maybe I'll give you a hickey," he teased, before ducking his head beneath the covers and kissing his way down her belly. She gave a soft cry of protest and twisted away from him teasingly, and then he froze.

"What? What is it?" she pulled the blanket away from his head, trying to find out why he had stopped, and shuddered at the sudden rush of cold air against her sleep-warm skin. His head was hovering just over her navel, and his hand still cupped her left hip.

"Uh, Trin? It's been a while since we did this last, so maybe my memory's gone funny. Didn't you have a bunch of scars?"

She swallowed. "Yeah." Her voice came out on a squeak.

"Did they heal?"

"They were still there last night." His breath was warm against her skin.

"Jesus." His voice shook. "What did I do?"

She placed her hand over his on her hip.

"You did this?' she asked, marvelling at a sight she'd never thought to see again - her own body smooth and unscarred.

"I don't know. Maybe." He slowly relaxed against her, laying his head against her belly. "Last night, when we were - you know. You didn't like it when I touched the scars. Like you were ashamed." He lifted his head and looked into her eyes sadly. "I didn't want you to be ashamed. I hated those scars for making you feel that way, because you're beautiful." Suddenly he surged up to her and kissed her hard. When he broke away, they were both gasping for air. He pressed his forehead against hers. "You're beautiful, and I didn't want you to feel ashamed. So I think I made the scars go away." She stared at him, speechless. "Sorry. Did you want to keep them?"

That was too much for Trinity. She let out a strangled sob and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "Thank you. God, thank you so much," she whispered, holding him as close to her as she could.

"You're not mad?" His voice was muffled by her neck.

She shook her head. "No. How could I be? I hated it, hated those damned scars. I thought you didn't want me because of them."

He shook his head violently, almost concussing himself against her jaw. "It was driving me crazy. It got so that the littlest things would turn me on - you'd walk into the room and I'd have to go jack off."

She laughed incredulously. She had thought he didn't want to be around her anymore. "Oh, god, I love you Neo."

He held her tighter. "I love you too," he whispered.

A/N The story can be safely finished here. It goes on after this, with no foreseeable end. I'll probably just get bored and wander off. But you can stop here.


	4. Chapter Four

Disclaimer: See Ch 1.

"Checkmate," said Feather lightly. Link gaped as his carefully-constructed evil plan to rule the chessboard fell apart before his eyes.

"Wha - no! That can't be right!" he protested. Feather grinned and tipped his king over. He slumped. "So that's, what, three games to you?"

"And only one to you," she agreed, her soft Welsh accent making her tone seem more mocking than she intended, as she moved the pieces back to their starting points. "Again?"

"Nah," he said, standing up and stretching. "I have to get back to work."

"Chicken."

"Merely industrious," he assured her.

"What are you going to do? Go in and poke the controls?" she asked. "None of us has anything to do until Neo re-emerges from... whatever the hell it is he's doing in there."

"He's -" Link began to tell her, but she cut him off. 

"Don't! I don't want to know."

"Don't pretend you're all innocent," he said grinning and ruffling her hair. She hated people doing that, but then most small women who think they're tough would. She ducked away, grinning, as there came a noise down the hallway. Somebody was sneaking.

Link stuck his head out the door of the mess and looked in the direction of the loud stealth sounds. Neo and Trinity were creeping noisily down the hall towards them.

"You guys do know we can hear you, right?" asked Link as Feather poked her blond head around him so she could see.

The lovers dropped their exaggerated 'sneaky' poses and stood up normally. "Yeah, we know," replied Neo calmly. "Feather, can we see you in the med bay for a minute?"

"I won't be able to detect a pregnancy for at least seventy-two hours, you know," jibed Feather gently, stepping out into the hall. The middle-aged Welsh woman was the new medic on the ship.

Trinity blushed slightly, but said, "It isn't that."

Feather shrugged. "Sure, I got a spare half hour. Let's go."

"I don't believe it," muttered Feather, sitting back in her chair almost two hours later.

"What?" asked Neo. "What can't you believe?"

"I thought it might just be a superficial thing. You know, just removing the skin deformities and creating the appearance of health again." She picked up Trinity's clothes and threw them to her. "But it's like there was never even an injury at all. All traces of scar tissue - completely gone. The calcium buildup around the break in your knee has vanished, and I'm not sure I want to contemplate what happened to the metal pins in your hip. The muscles and ligaments torn have all become complete again, and the weaknesses caused by that have disappeared. The organs that were damaged are functioning again, good as new. Even that scar on the back of your head has gone." She shook her own head helplessly. "It's not even like it healed up. Even the best healing will leave microscopic traces - for example, the site of the injury will always have a median temperature slightly lower than the rest of the body, because of the way the capillaries break. And yours did - three days ago." She shrugged. "And now, nothing."

"Nothing?" asked Trinity incredulously.

"Nothing," confirmed the medic. "Nada. Zip, zilch, zero. You have no injuries whatsoever. Even the cough you had yesterday is gone."

"How did you know about that?"

The docter gave her a withering look. "I'm your doctor. It's my job to notice these things."

"Right, right," said Neo placatingly. "So, what do we do now?"

She shrugged. "One of two things. We declare it a medical mystery, drag you back to Zion and run you through every test we can think of while glaring suspiciously at you as if you've deliberately done something evil and underhandedly naughty to usurp our medical authority, and finally declare ourselves stumped, lose interest and wander off."

Trinity grinned. Feather had a very strange sense of humour, and a healthy dislike of doctors, despite being one herself. "What's the other option?"

"Proclaim; it's a miracle! Hallelujah! Lose interest, and wander off."

Trinity and Neo looked at one another and shrugged. "Hallelujah."

Feather laughed delightedly. "I thought you might say that."


	5. Chapter Five

Disclaimer: See Ch 1.

They sat in the gym. Trinity was tentatively exercising the muscles in her abdomen and leg. She sat on the floor with her left leg stretched out in front of her, right foot tucked up to her groin as she reached down and grasped her toes.

"How is it?" asked Neo, sitting over by the wall.

She grunted softly. "Stiff. I've lost some flexibilty - the muscles are all tight." She leaned over, pulling the foot with her until she lay on her side with her leg sticking up in the air, held straight by her hand on her toes. "Doesn't hurt, though. Feels good to stretch again."

She rolled over to lie on her back, wrapping her arms behind her knees and pulling them close to her face, rolling her hips off the floor until her feet touched the ground behind her head. Her stomach muscles spasmed, but she held the position. Neo raised his eyebrows. "How flexible were you before?"

She sat up. "More than this," she said with a shrug, before pulling her legs apart into a wide V and leaning forward. She could lie almost flat on the ground, her arms stretched out straight in front of her. Her legs were not quite in a straight line, but came very close.

"Damn, girl. Doesn't that hurt?"

She lay back on the padded floor. "No. It feels wonderful. I can feel it now - it's healed. It feels great."

Neo smiled. "I'm glad," he said softly, and she turned her head to bestow upon him a dopey, lovesick smile.

He crawled across the small space between them and collapsed in an ungainly heap across her chest that forced her to exhale in a burst of air and some creative cursing. "Get offa me, you great lump of a man!"

"Nope," his voice came muffled from her arm, "Comfy here. Sleep."

She shoved at him, and he poked a finger into her ribs, making her squeal and squirm away. She twisted hard, rolling them over so she was lying across him, and reached for his hip where she knew he was ticklish. He caught her hand and tried to hold it, resulting in a match of tug-of-war that quickly descended into a juvenile wrestling match.

"Am I interrupting something?" asked Morpheus from the doorway.

Neo looked up. Trinity tried to look up, but he had her in a headlock and it was difficult. "No, sir," replied Neo cheerfully, then yelped and released her as Trinity pinched him hard on the backside.

Morpheus looked at her calmly and said, "I take the situation has been resolved satisfactorily?"

"Yessir," she said with a flushed grin, scooting backwards as Neo rubbed his posterior and eyed her suspiciously.

"Good." He paused and looked hard at both of them. "Is what Feather told me true?"

Trinity sat up straight and pulled away the top she was wearing to expose just enough skin to prove her point. "All better," she said calmly. 

Morpheus raised an eyebrow. "Neo, did you so that?"

"I think so, sir. I don't know how, but I think I did."

"Could you do it again? On somebody else?"

Neo thought about it. "Probably not. The circumstances were sort of unique. I don't even know if I could do it again on Trinity."

Morpheus sighed. "Damn."

Neo shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry. You know if could..."

"But you can't." Morpheus gave a sort of sneezing laugh. "It's not like I haven't already been asking the impossible of you. It's just..." 

"I know," said Neo softly. Morpheus had been given command of a large mobile force to drive off the sentinels. The line had held, but not without massive casualties, many of whom he knew well and felt personally responsible for. Some of the injuries had been absolutely horrific, and Morpheus had seen most of the victims, knew them well. He would want to heal them, if he could. "I'm sorry," repeated Neo quietly.

Morpheus shook his head. "It's okay." He looked from Neo to Trinity, who sat curled up, watching the conversation from wide eyes, back to Neo. "You two going to actually do anything today, or just sit around down here and play?"

"I'm voting for play," said Trinity with a small smile.

"Yeah, me too," said Neo.

Morpheus smiled tiredly and nodded. "I thought that might be the case. But just for today, okay? Tomorrow it's back to normal."

"Yes, sir," they chorused, and Morpheus turned to leave. Trinity took advantage of Neo's distraction to tackle him, and the game was on again


	6. Chapter Six

Part the sixth, in which Morpheus and Niobe's relationship is further extrapolated upon, Link and Feather play some more chess, (Don't look at me like that. I happen to like chess.) and Trinity and Neo... get pretty much ignored, actually. Don't do much at all.

A/N GYAAARRRGHH! Damn you! Damn you Wachowski brothers! Revolutions went and AU'd all my fics!

So, from now on, this is an AU!

Niobe and Feather looked up as Morpheus entered Niobe's office. "Is it true?" asked Niobe, looking vaguely shocked.

"Yes," said Morpheus shaking his head and grinning in disbelief. "Trinity has been healed."

"Told you," said Feather smugly. She was sitting on a small bare patch of Niobe's paper-covered desk.

Niobe shook her head in astonishment. ''And Neo did this?"

"Well, he thinks so," replied Feather. "I really don't see any other way it could have happened."

"Man, that's incredible."

Feather stood up. "Well, I've got work to do, and I'm sure you do too. I'll leave you to it." Exit Feather, through the hatch. Niobe's head met the table with a dull, metallic 'thunk'.

"Urrgghh. I'm so bored of all this administrative bullshit," she whinged.

Morpheus sat down in the small room's only other chair. "You turned down the promotion, you get the relative anonymity, you take the extra work."

She flipped him the finger without lifting her head from the desk. "Shuddup, you."

After the final battle, Morpheus had been promoted. The council had judged it too risky to have only one supreme commander of the city's defences, so Morpheus had been made what amounted to an admiral. Niobe had been offered a similar promotion, but had politely declined, and then just as politely offered her shiny new ship as a flag ship to Morpheus. The Neb II was the pride and joy of the first battalion of Zion, made up of ten of the sixty ships currently active in the city's defence. Morpheus had the undoubted honour and somewhat dubious pleasure of commanding that battalion, which meant a hell of a lot of paperwork and a berth on the Neb II. He never used it, preferring to share with Niobe. He said it was warmer. He didn't have time for all the paperwork that went on, and, as water flows downhill, much of the burden fell to Niobe, who admittedly was far better suited to administrative detail than he.

Morpheus rounded the desk and knelt by her chair, pressing his cheek against her shoulderblade. "You shouldn't work so hard in your condition," he murmured.

She shifted in her seat. "I refuse to allow myself to become incapacitated because of you."

"You're saying this is my fault?" he asked incredulously, pulling back.

She glanced down at her bulging, eight-month belly. "Well, who would you blame?"

"I seem to recall you being fairly enthusiastic at the time."

She scowled at him, but he was deadly serious when he looked up at her. "Do not want this?" he asked softly. Her face softened immediately and she flung her arms around his neck.

"Of course I do. Of course I do. Don't ever think that I don't."

He smiled, pulling her out of her chair and cradling her gently in his lap. "Then what is it?"

"It's just damned uncomfortable, is all," she muttered wryly. "I can't crawl around in the ship, it's hard to get up and down the ladders, and I haven't been able to touch my toes in months. Hell, I don't think I've seen my toes in months."

Morpheus laughed, his arms tightening about her. "Not much longer now, baby. Soon."

"Soon," repeated Niobe, resting her head against his shoulder. "Soon we'll have our baby." A thought occurred to her and she lifted her head from his shoulder and pulled back from him slightly. "Hey, what are we gonna call this little one?"

He looked down at her thoughtfully. "You know, I hadn't even thought about it."

"Well, we'd better think about it. We don't have long."

"No, we don't." His face clouded with thought as he shifted to a more comfortable position, braced against the wall with his legs stretched straight out in front of him and Niobe sideways on his lap, resting against his chest. "Well, didn't the Niobe of legend have a ridiculous amount of children?"

Her face lit up. "Oh, yeah. But wouldn't that be a bit of a cop-out?"

He frowned again. "I suppose. But it should have something to do with one of our names."

"Well, Morpheus was the god of dreams."

"Reve?"

"Belle reve, perhaps."

"You got that from that play, didn't you."

"Non, je reve de toi."

"Aww, you're just saying that."

"No no, it's true."

Link appeared at the open hatch. "Sir? Ma'am? Is anything else happening today?"

Morpheus looked up and said, "No, Link. I think it would be best if today were a day of leisure for the whole battalion. It's unlikely that anything constructive would happen anyway."

Link nodded obediently, but his heart sank. A day of leisure meant he would inevitably get pulled into endless games of chess with Feather. They'd played cards for a while, but the cards had mysteriously gone missing when he started winning. So chess it was. 

Now if only she would stop winning. He was convinced that she was somehow cheating.

A/N: By the by, the French word 'reve' means dream. 'Belle reve' means beautiful dream, the play referred to is 'A Streetcar Named Desire', and 'Je reve de toi,' according my sources, means 'I dream of you.' Just in case you care. 


End file.
